To kick off their university experience, first-year engineering students, with nursing students resting atop their backs, ran through an onslaught of grey slop during Thundermugz.
On Sept. 2, the Engineering Society (EngSoc) hosted the traditional event, which was first recorded in 1956, in City Park. EngSoc is responsible for hosting orientation events for first-year engineering students.
First-year students began the event by creating their “Thundermugz,” a throne made using a combination of different pieces of cardboard along with a toilet that’s used as a seat. Students then decorated them with spray paint and walked them over to City Park.
First-year nursing students sat on the toilet in the cardboard contraption while engineering students hoisted the Thundermugz onto their backs and ran across the park. As they ran, orientation volunteers threw a grey mixture of oatmeal and water at them. Each run was timed and the fastest group to complete the event won.
First-year engineering student and Thundermugz participant Colin Wardell, Sci ’28, had a blast.
“It was really fun. I would definitely recommend first-year students go to all the orientation events they can. Each one is unique and is something that you’ll probably never get the chance to do again,” Wardell said in an interview with The Journal.
EngSoc President Jack Walker also viewed the event, and engineering orientation more generally, as a success.
“We were really happy with how the first weekend of orientation went—we have a record-breaking first-year class size, a similarly record-breaking number of registrants, and still managed to pull together the incredible experience that our orientation is known for,” Walker said in a statement to The Journal.
For Walker, engineering orientation has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My [orientation leaders] in my first year [2021] certainly did the best they could given public health regulations at the time. However, the difference in engagement between then and now from both our participants and leaders is like night and day, and I’m really looking forward to seeing that trend continue in future years,” Walker said.
First-year students got messy again in City Park during the annual Highland games on Sept. 7. These games involve a muddy game of tug of war, socks—where groups of first-year students must take the socks off the other team—and Mini Dozers, where students run across a pit while the opposing team tries to stop them.
The final, and notoriously physically exhaustive event, the Grease Pole, took place on Sept. 8 where engineering students attempted to climb up a slippery pole using other students as ladders to retrieve the tam hat placed at the top.
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